District 81 Sets Deadline Sixth-Grader Has Until Friday To Transfer Or Stay At Home

First she lost her classroom. Then she lost her conference room. Now, Tiffany Cook may lose all access to Woodridge Elementary School.

Spokane School District 81 administrators are taking steps to end their standoff with the gifted 10-year-old girl, who refuses to transfer to another school because her sixth-grade classroom is full.

“We need to stop this setting, because it’s not in her best interests,” said Laurie Dolan, an administrator for schools in northwest Spokane.

On Wednesday, Dolan called off an unusual arrangement in which Tiffany was moved to a school conference room where she spent the day alone with a stack of lessons.

They also barred the girl from lunch and recess with her former classmates.

“We had her eat lunch by herself,” Dolan said. “Having her eat lunch with the other kids was really disruptive. We need to get her to Browne (Elementary School) and the other kids need to get on with their year at Woodridge.”

Administrators gave Tiffany the option of studying in the conference room “to ease the transition” to Browne, Dolan said. They’d tried in vain to persuade the girl and her parents to accept the transfer to Browne, four miles away.

On Wednesday afternoon, Dolan hand-delivered a letter to Tiffany’s mother, Tammy Cook. The letter gave the family until Friday to send Tiffany to Browne, enroll her in another school district, or teach her at home.

A half-hour after Dolan’s visit, Tammy Cook let out a deep sigh.

“This is just a tough situation, and I just feel that if they’d hire teachers’ assistants to offset the class load we would not have to do something this devastating to children,” the mother said.

Cook vowed to send Tiffany to Woodridge again today.

“I’m not sure what will happen on Friday yet. I have to find out what are our legal rights.”

The Cooks, a military family, said they’re as devoted to the school as they are to the four-bedroom house they bought in the Indian Trail neighborhood last month.

They don’t want Tiffany to leave her new friends or Tori, her 8-year-old sister. Tiffany says she gets sick to her stomach every time she thinks about climbing on the bus.

When educators initially said they’d put Tiffany alone in a conference room if she refused to transfer, the girl accepted and said she’d stay all year.

“That’s not working out,” Dolan said. “To leave her there is not educationally responsible.”

Problems arose Wednesday when Tiffany breezed through lessons educators thought would keep her busy for a couple of days.

Bob Pedersen, principal at Woodridge, also moved her to an office next to his.

While she was in the conference room, just off a hallway, her former classmates walked by, waved and whispered hello.

“We want these kids to go on with their sixth-grade year,” Dolan said.

“All of them.”

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